Waste management to mark Earth Day celebration

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The nationwide Green Consumers Movement will, this Monday, highlight the 32nd World Earth Day, which falls on April 22, the campaign for which focuses on reducing waste problems rampant in the country.

Initiated by the Indonesian Green Consumers Foundation (Lemkohi), the campaign focuses on Jakarta, as the capital faces the worst consequences of waste problems, where residents will be educated to manage their own household waste.

"If we succeed in Jakarta, the campaign will target other regions, and, hopefully, the government will adopt the green consumer movement as its policy," Lemkohi chairman Syafei Kadarusman told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The two-month campaign will be used to publicize the use of "compostor barrels" in each household at 50 subdistricts in the capital. The barrel helps residents to change household organic waste into more useful compost.

The campaign is expected to end on June 5, in time for World Environment Day.

Jakarta was recently hit by floods and potentially fatal diseases caused by waste. Jakarta's 9.2 million residents produce an estimated 6,000 tonnes of waste daily, 65 percent of which is categorized as organic.

Syafei expected the campaign would recycle 40 percent of the organic waste.

"Almost all diseases, which include the postflood lethal disease leptospirosis, are caused by uncontrolled organic waste," Syafei said.

He added that the government's policy in providing separate trash cans for organic and nonorganic waste in public places was not working, as people still did not separate their garbage.

Earth Day observance originated from the concern of U.S. senator Gaylord Nelson about the decrease in environmental quality. His speech in 1969 in Seattle, urging the inclusion of controversial issues on the environment in the university curriculum, moved the grass roots to pay more heed to the issue.

As part of the movement, dozens of environmentalists participated when the Coalition of Indonesian Environment Lovers staged a peaceful demonstration on Sunday at the entrance to the National Monument park in Central Jakarta.

The activists urged the administration to formulate a clear program for joint waste management that promoted resident participation, rather than simply pocketing fees for waste management without offering any solutions.